Thoughts on my twelve day LEJOG route plan?

lastant

Planning on taking on a twelve-day LEJOG this year and have got a first draft of my route completed. I'm going to be going solo and supporting myself along the way and have tried to make the days as evenly weighted as possible whilst leaving an opportunity to have a decent(ish) place to stay (going for a mix of hostels and bed and breakfasts depending on what's available or heavily recommended in the area).

Appreciate that my Day Ten leg from Crainlairch through to Inverness is a little long, but it fits in with the accommodation plans and I'm hoping the weather gods are on my side that day to make it a little less painful!

Have read through what seems far too many accounts of other people's efforts and hopefully have picked out advice from all of them. I've asked on CTC's LEJOG forum too, but would appreciate the thoughts of anyone here that's got any!

Thanks in advance...

- - - - - - - - - -
Day One; 88 miles - Ascent; 4,346ft, Descent; 4,284ft (BikeRouteToaster Plan)
Penzance > Lands End > Lizard Point > Newquay

Day Two; 71 miles - Ascent; 3,779ft, Descent; 3,795ft (BikeRouteToaster Plan)
Newquay > Wadbridge > Boscastle > Westward Ho!

Day Three; 72 miles - Ascent; 4,213ft, Descent; 4,281ft (BikeRouteToaster Plan)
Westward Ho! > Barnstable > Exmoor National Park > Bridgwater

Day Four; 89 miles - Ascent; 2,890ft, Descent; 2,732ft (BikeRouteToaster Plan)
Bridgwater > Weston-Super-Mare > Bristol > Monmouth > Hereford

Day Five; 96 miles - Ascent; 2,726ft, Descent; 2,838ft (BikeRouteToaster Plan)
Hereford > Church Stretton > Shrewsbury > Whitchurch > Chester

Day Six; 89 miles - Ascent; 2,094ft, Descent; 2,100ft (BikeRouteToaster Plan)
Chester > Lymm > Ashton-in-Masterfield > Eccleston > Preston > Lancaster

Day Seven; 75 miles - Ascent; 4,030ft, Descent; 4,041ft (BikeRouteToaster Plan)
Lancaster > Kendal > Windemere > Mangrisdale > Carlisle

Day Eight; 92 miles - Ascent; 4,552ft, Descent; 4,372ft (BikeRouteToaster Plan)
Carlisle > Langholm > Crosslee > Innerleithen > Gorebridge > Edinburgh

Day Nine; 85 miles - Ascent; 2,855ft, Descent; 2,565ft (BikeRouteToaster Plan)
Edinburgh > Dunfermline > Alloa > Stirling > Lochearnhead > Crainlairch

Day Ten; 115 miles - Ascent; 4,636ft, Descent; 5,095ft (BikeRouteToaster Plan)
Crainlairch > Achallader > Glencoe > Fort William > Fort Augustus > Inverness

Day Eleven; 87 miles - Ascent; 3,671ft, Descent; 3,662ft (BikeRouteToaster Plan)
Inverness > Ardulie > Bonar Bridge > Rhian > Loch Loyal > Tongue

Day Twelve; 72 miles - Ascent; 3,602ft, Descent; 3,474ft (BikeRouteToaster Plan)
Tongue > Strathy > Thurso > Dunnet's Head > John O'Groats

jimwin

The N Cornwall coast is my stopming ground and there are a few improvements you could make to this route...
http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course. ... rse=111627

1. In St Columb Major, it's much nicer to TL on the Newquay road and left through the village centre, follow the road N out of the village, under the A39 to join the A39 just before the B3274 crossing.

A scenic option is to take the B3274 to Padstow for some Rick Stein fish & chips, then take the NCN route to Wadebridge. It's a bit potholed, but worth it.

2. Wadebridge is an excellent stop and the CoOp has a great coffee stop. But don't go up the A39 which is busy and can be unpleasant, but head SE on the A389 taking a minor road to St Mabyn to join the B3266 and cross over the A39 at Camelford to Boscastle.

3. On the A39 just before Bude, take the cycle route into Bude. Then back out on the A3073, left onto the A39 and right onto the A3072 to Holsworthy where left to join the A388 to Bideford and Westward Ho.

Hope this helps

- JimW

harpo

Day 5 go via Ludlow. It is very nice with lovely coffee shops for cake stop.

http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=54471

Much Wenlock was lovely too but not very direct for your route to chester.

Your route into Hereford looked fine on the back roads. Is a nice route into the town but the town itself I found - not so nice.

I'd consider the A9 route up north. The A 82 is very scenic but not the nicest road to cycle I imagine. Heavy traffic and tight.

Be ready for covering more miles than you have mapped or possibly a little less if you take more main more direct roads. A tough but achievable schedule.

Lou_m

Stay off the A9. It's a horrible horrible road! Id have thought it would have been better to head up towards Glasgow than over to Edinburgh then back to the west cost?

harpo

Even the cycle route up the side of it?

amaferanga

Lou_m wrote:

Stay off the A9. It's a horrible horrible road! Id have thought it would have been better to head up towards Glasgow than over to Edinburgh then back to the west cost?

Why? Head west, then est then west doesn't sound like the best route to me!

amaferanga

harpo wrote:

Even the cycle route up the side of it?

The cycle lane is okay if you don't mind poor surfaces and constant ups and downs. The A9 itself is not generally a great road for a bike, but IME its actually really good at times. I used it most of the way from Dunkeld to Inverness on my LEJOG. I used the better bits of the track, but mostly preferred the road. My experience of the A9 was that from Dunkeld in the early afternoon was busy and unpleasant, but by mid-late afternoon when I was about half way between Pitlochry and Aviemore it was actually a nice quiet road. If you want to make decent progress then its way better than the track (nice gentle gradients and decent surface on the A9).

The following day I left at Aviemore at 5am and followed the A9 to Inverness which was again quite pleasant. North from Inverness was a completely different story and after crossing the bridge I avoided it apart from a little stretch over the water and I headed inland from Alness away from the A9 anyway.

Just looked at your route from Inverness - Alness. Similar to mine, but depending on how early you leave Inverness you might want to avoid the A9.

Here's my actual tracklog for Aviemore - JoG (and back to Thurso).

lastant

Thanks for the responses, it's promising to see there's no 'you're mental...it can't be done' ones in there! Advice taken on board and I'll look at a second draft in the next couple of days.

All of my train tickets (and bike reservations!) have arrived and are in hand. I'll admit to being a little bit excited and looking forward to starting it all now!

rjh299

JimW route looks like a good option.
Also why are you going to Lizard? Is it somewhere you really want to go? If so fair enough, but the North coast road (B3306) St Just, Zennor, St Ives is a great road to ride along. Hardly any traffic, decent surface, rolling hills and great scenery. Plus going that way the wind is normally on your back.
I did it on short tour last year and it was by far the best day.
Also the road to Lizard after Helston past Culdrose airfield is very fast and pretty busy.
Good luck for your trip

lastant

rjh299 wrote:

Also why are you going to Lizard? Is it somewhere you really want to go?

It's not somewhere I really want to go to, but quite like the idea of taking in the Southern and Northern 'tips' as part of the journey - I do realise it adds on quite a bit of 'unnecessary' miles but you know what it's like when you get something into your head...

Thanks once again to the advice so far, it really is appreciated.

Ain\'t no monkey

The route looks fine to me.

Just one point; I reckon the heights ascended/descended are probably way out- when I transfer biketoaster routes to Anquet OS, they always come out with a higher figure (I think they use fewer points and so miss lots of height changes). However, fine for daily comparisons.